Shirts first.

February 10

No t-shirt

February 11

Another shirt-of-the-day site treasure.  I absolutely love this shirt and wear it frequently.  And every time I wear it, the same co-worker asks what it is or what it means.  David Tennant Doctor Who shirt.  

February 12

We used to go to Walt Disney World every year at least once.  And I'd always try to find a shirt when I went.  Most of my old ones I've either worn out or outgrew (in grew?  I got smaller, they did not.).  I only have a couple left.  This one is from my last trip there.  I love the retro look to it.  It gets harder and harder to find shirts there that are the slightest bit interesting and not cheap looking.  This one fit the bill, though.

February 13

This is a Nerd Block Star Wars shirt.  It's kind of lost on me since *gasp* I've never seen a Star Wars movie in my life.  Nor do I really have any desire.  Sure, I know who most of the characters are (and honestly, who doesn't?), but that's about the extent of my SW knowledge.  But it's a neat shirt, nonetheless.

February 14

Although I wore it on Valentine's Day, the fact that I picked a red shirt was coincidental.  This is one of my older shirts.  And by older, after I hit my goal weight.  I love it.  I love it a lot.  I have another one very similar to it with eight other characters, but on navy blue.  I only wear this shirt in the winter.  The reason for that is I need a shirt underneath it.  It's cut just the slightest bit short that makes it a belly shirt on me.  I'm uncomfortable with that, so I wear it over a long sleeve t-shirt and it's great.

I'm sure I've bitched about clothes many times in the past here.  Being obese presented a lot of challenges to buying clothes.  It took some searching, but I could find my size if I looked long and hard enough.  When I got back down into a human sized body, I thought those issues would be long behind me, but instead I discovered all-new issues.  Shirts are always a problem.  I lost enough weight that I can fit into some medium sized shirts (some, not most, though), but they're much too short on me.  I can fit into all large shirts, but again, I find that length is a big issue.  My torso is just a little bit too big for a normal large shirt.  So most of the comic book shirts I buy tend to be XL.  XL's are baggy on me, but they give me the extra inch, sometimes two, that I need for them not to be belly shirts.  I wish that I could get these things in a LT, because that would be ideal.  But they don't.  

I've also discovered that all XLs are not created equally.  Like this shirt.  It's short on my.  Others are fine.  Every once in a great while, they are even long.  And some are way baggier than others.  It's a little frustrating, but I deal.

February 15

This Doctor Who shirt is a legitimately licensed shirt and not a shirt-of-the-day type.  I picked it to wear yesterday because the time/space vortex behind the TARDIS reminds me a little bit of the big snow storm we had the other day.  I thought it was semi-appropriate.  No other reason.

February 16

Today was just another random grab from the closet.  I got Aquaman.  I love Aquaman.  This shirt is silly, but it's twelve kinds of awesome, too, and it matches a pair of Aquaman sneakers I have.

On Friday, my bi-weekly box of crack arrived.  Here's what I got this time.

For floppies, I got Batman, Batgir, Justice League of America, Earth 2, Forever Evil and two of the FE tie-in mini-series.

I only got three trades this time.  Avengers Vol 1, Supergirl Vol 3 and Constantine Vol 1.  Supergirl is the only Superman Family book I'm currently reading.  The rest of the Superman books and Superboy have been incredibly disappointing to me, so I've dropped them.  Supergirl has been semi-interesting.  She's clearly a new incarnation of Kara Zor-El, but I've been enjoying it so far.  I'm anxious to see where the book is heading.  Constantine I've very nervous about.  I've been a big fan since the 80s, but this is the New 52 Constantine, a watered down version of the character.  I'm not sure how I'm going to like this first volume of the kinder, gentler Constantine.  And Avengers.  I have always loved the Avengers.  I'm curiously optimistic about this Marvel Now relaunch of the series.  The team no longer resembles the Avengers that i used to love, but it looks like there is great potential in the book.  I'm gonna give it a shot and see.

Sunday

Three posts in one day last weekend, nothing since.  Typical.

It was a weird week.  I still have a tiny bit of this plague lingering with me.  I can't seem to shake the last little bit of it.  For the most part, though, I'm back to feeling myself.  Which is fantastic, because I hate feeling less than 100%.  Like on Fridays.  I am always in such a vile mood by the time Friday comes around.  I'm exhausted, my tolerance for the people I work with is at the lowest point of the week and I just want to run away (or at least take a four hour nap.)  This past Friday kind of started out that way.  Word is that I was brought up in the management meeting on Thursday and some folks are not happy at how much I do around the office.  As in too much, not too little.  Most of my co-workers hope to fit an hour or two of work in during the course of a day, so doing nothing is something you can potentially be rewarded for.  I didn't get much of a chance to talk to the person who told me about this, but the gist is I'm doing too much for the people I support and it's throwing our production numbers off.  As in, we're too efficient.  I never in a million years would have thought that being too productive would be a bad thing.  Especially since management is constantly talking about improving production numbers.  Which says to me their entire job is to spit out buzz words and not mean a damn one of them.  So Friday I was pissy about that, I was pissy about co-workers, and then something happened.  For lack of a better phrase, the office crack whore was escorted out of the building by HR for allegedly being drunk again.  And allegedly putting unwelcome sexual advances on someone.  None of this is out of the ordinary, so I keep wondering why this time she was actually sent home instead of left there to cause a scene like every other time.  Hopefully I'll hear something on Monday.  But that turned my mood around.  I know nothing will happen to her, but it certainly broke up the monotony of a Friday.

Otherwise it's been a busy, but quiet week.  Most of the weekend has been filled with trips to Home Depot and Lowe's, which was getting old quick.  We'd go for one thing, and then make a return trip because Ken forgot the item he actually went in for, rinse and repeat.  Everything he bought at the last trip there this morning needs to be returned.  Of course.  Ken and Lowe's is not a fun combination.

And here's my shirt update.

February 3

This is a cool Batman shirt I just got recently.  It's not from one of the shirt of the day sites like many of my shirts are from, but it's from a similar type thing.  I subscribe to Nerd Block, which is a monthly mystery service.  I got a box of geeky stuff.  I've been getting the boxes for the last few months and I'm one more shipment away from deciding if I'm going to continue with it or not.  I get a shirt and a whole bunch of geeky and nerdy toys each month.  It's really hit or miss if I get good stuff.  Some of the stuff I don't want I've gathered up and will gift them to someone who will appreciate them. 

February 4

I picked this beauty up at Comic Con last October.  Red Tornado is bad ass, or at least he was back in the 70s.

                                                                 February 5

I'm so happy this picture came out.  Most of the time when I try to photograph it, it doesn't come out purple, but dark blue instead.  This is my Yvonne Craig Batgirl shirt.  I don't think I really need to say much more about it.  LOL.

February 6

Another Nerd Block shirt.  I don't really know much about Adventure Time, but I like the shirt and I like everything I've seen about the show (it is a show, right?).

 February 7

I must have subconsciously decided to make it a Nerd Block week.  This is another shirt from Nerd Block.  A Legend Of Zelda shirt.  I used to love that game way back in the day when I understood video games.  

February 8

Grendel.  Hunter Rose.  Matt Wagner.  So fucking cool.  I didn't discover Grendel until the twelve issue series featuring Christine Spar as Grendel, but I've been hooked since.  Dark Horse recently started reprinting Grendel from the beginning in their Omnibus format.  I've picked up the first four volumes so far, but they're still sitting on my backlog shelf.  I really can't wait to get a chance to sit down and relive this series from the beginning.

February 9

Today's shirt is another shirt of the day shirts.  Ocean's Eleven mash-up with Doctor Who.  I think it's a fucking amazing shirt.  It works so well.  They make a shit load of Doctor Who shirts, and although I have a lot of them, I pass on most.  But when something like this comes along, I just can't.

Looking at what I wore this past week, it looks like every shirt was a random grab out of the closet.  It's more fun that way.

Me

Three posts in one day.  WTF?

Just a quick update on my rather dull life. I'm still fighting this fucking plague I've been stricken with.  It's getting frustrating.  It's going on nearly two weeks.  Sure, I'm starting to feel better, but this is taking entirely too long.  I took Friday off from work, partially to give myself a rest, partially because work was pissing me off.  I tried to sleep in, but Ken's alarm starts going off at 6am, but he doesn't get out of bed until a little after 7.  So that didn't work out well.  After he left for work, I headed out for groceries.  I was feeling a little off, but I figured it was due to the NyQuil from the night before.  After errands, I figured it was time to get back to the gym.  It had been over a week since I'd been.  Normally if I miss a day, I freak the fuck out, but I've been okay with not going.  I didn't want to overdo it and put myself back a couple days with this cold.  I went and did my workout, but by the time I was done, my lungs were screaming obscenities at me.  And by the time I got home, I knew I did a bad thing.  I mean, my body felt great sweating some of this crap out of me, but it wiped me out way more than I expected.  I slept for the rest of the afternoon.  Saturday I made the conscious decision to do nothing all day since we had dinner plans with friends.  I didn't want to (a) do the same thing I did on Friday regarding the gym and (b) spend the morning and afternoon out and about before doing the same thing with the evening.  It was the right choice.  This morning I gymed it again and while it was probably the wrong decision, I don't feel nearly as bad as I did Friday.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow after work before I decide whether exercise is a good idea.  It is starting to drive me crazy that I'm falling out of my normal routine.  I thrive when I have a routine.  

I just finished my 2001 playlist today.  If this wasn't already my third post today, I'd work on my 1987 blog post.  I'll do that this week (I hope.)

Besides just listening to the 2001 playlist, I usually start my mornings off on other things.  First I listen to whatever podcasts download the night before.  I don't listen to too many anymore, but I usually have one to listen to.  Then it's either new stuff I've just added to my iPod or it's something I'm in the mood for that's not new.  The last week or so I've been revisiting Joni Mitchell's discography, one album at a time.  Don't know what brought this on, but it's been fun.  Today I made it up to Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm.  It's been neat listening to her evolution over the years.  We've gone from very folkie to a more rock oriented Joni so far.  I'm very much looking forward to the rest of her discography.  And doing this from time to time is a lot of fun for me.

Oh, I meant to say this earlier, when I was lamenting not working out.  Since December, I've been having a really hard time keeping my weight in check.  I'm only a few pounds heavier than I'd like, which to any other living human being, isn't noticeable on me at all.  But I obsess and I want to see a certain number or below on the scale.  That number is 195 or less.  Lately it's been around 197, which doesn't please me.  I need to remember that I was at 300 not all that long ago, so why I beat myself up is anyone's guess.  But anyway, not exercising has actually not had the huge negative impact on me that I was expecting.  In fact, it's been just the opposite.  For the first time in months, my weight has been in check.  But not for the best reason.  Since I've had this walking plague, my appetite hasn't been as big as it usually is.  So I've been eating less and probably not enough.  I've been 190 lbs for the last three mornings.  Once my appetite is back in full force, I'll be seeing that number go up.  But I should also be feeling better, too, and exercising some of that off.

Yes, I'm an obsessive freak.  That is news to no one.

T-Shirt Update

January 28

This is the last concert tee I purchased.  From the Frank Turner show back in November.  I posted about it then, I believe.  Possibly the greatest concert I've been to.  At the very least, the greatest show I've been to in a really long time.  If you've never seen him or even heard of him, I suggest searching him out.  He's fantastic.

January 29

A while ago, Graphitti Designs released a Kevin Keller t-shirt.  I really wanted it, but it had two things going against it.  It was white (and I have a hard time keeping white shirts clean) and it had the stupid slogan "Team Kevin" printed across it.  Luckily they came out with another design and I bought this.  In case you are unaware of who Kevin is, he's a classmate of Archie Andrews and he's the first gay character in Archie Comics.

 January 30

 Super Friends.  What else can I say, really?

January 31

Earlier in the week I wore my newest concert tee.  This is my oldest.  It's also the oldest piece of clothing I own.  Back in the day (that day being the day before I lost control of my weight and outgrew normal clothing) I used to buy concert tees to just about every show I went to.  As I got fatter and fatter, I got rid of all my old things, knowing I'd never fit back in them again.  This is the one shirt I kept.  I love the picture.  Herb Ritts, I believe, took the picture.  The show was amazing.  But this shirt, from 1993, spent probably ten or fifteen years in the bottom of a dresser drawer because it didn't fit.  The day it did fit again was a fantastic fucking day.

February 1

I told you I have a lot of Green Lantern shirts.  This one is a variation on the Lantern logo.  What I really like about it is if you look closely, there are Green Lantern comic book covers faded in the background.  What I don't like about it is each time I wash it, those covers seem to get more and more faint.  But it's still a cool shirt.

February 2

Today's shirt is a custom made shirt by Ken.  When we went on the cruise back in November, it was for his sister's 50th birthday.  So he had shirts made.  Thankfully he had the forethought to make sure they weren't obnoxiously obvious.  If you don't look too hard, it just looks like it's a shirt for a local bar or something.  And that makes it something that can be worn anytime, anywhere.  He made a set of four.  Each shirt was a different color and the drinks in the center of the shirt were different on each shirt.  He did a good job.

Comics

I was due to get my bi-weekly shipment of comics on Friday, but earlier in the week, my distributor sent out an email alerting everyone that books will probably be a day or two late as more weather issues across the country delayed their incoming shipment of books by a day.  I didn't think anything about it.  I did check the front porch Friday afternoon and there weren't any packages, but I wasn't expecting any.  Saturday morning Ken found my delivery on the front porch.  It must have come while we were out at dinner.  So that was a pleasant surprise, though I was going to use the weekend to make a little progress in my backlog.  I'll need to do a post about that someday.

Anyway, this is what I got this week:

For trade paperbacks, I got the latest Young Avengers and Batwing.  I wasn't going to follow Young Avengers when it came back because I loved what Allan Heinberg did with the book and he wasn't going to be writing this series, but so far, I'm loving it.  I believe it just got cancelled, though, which sucks, but Marvel keeps doing that with everything.  Start a new series, cancel it, start it over again, cancel it, start it over again.  I don't like that.  At all.  Start a book and stick with it, dammit.  Batwing was one of the pleasant surprises of the New 52 for me.  I think everything changes with this volume, though, so I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.

The other two books I got were The Creature Commandos and Doctor Who.  I somehow missed this volume of Doctor Who when it first came out.  I only realized it when I was filing the latest volume away.  The Creature Commandos is going to be bad, I can just feel it, but I have fond memories of the strip when it ran in Weird War Tales back in the 80s.  We'll see how it holds up.

As for regular books, this shipment brought all three Justice League books, World's Finest (and Annual), Earth Two Annual, Batman, Batgirl, Batwoman, Aquaman and two of the Forever Evil tie-in mini-series.  I was surprised at how many floppies I got this time around.  I'm not reading very much on a monthly basis anymore, favoring the collected editions instead.  Most of what I have here is pretty damn good.  I'm kind of bored with the Justice League books right now because those characters are central to the Forever Evil mini-series, so things have been kind of quiet in them with most of the good stuff taking place in the actual mini-series.  I really like the Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S. story, but the others not so much.  Batgirl has always been a solid read, as has Batman.  Batwoman is a book I really like, but there's been a creative team change and I haven't gotten a solid grip on where the book is heading yet.  Same with Aquaman.  And Earth 2 just went through the same creative team shake up and seems to be continuing on as a terrific read.  World's Finest, too, is a good read.  I've always loved the Huntress and Power Girl and am so happy they've been given a chance in the New 52.  While they just aren't quite the same characters, they're close and I've been enjoying the book.